Way Back When
by psycho pixie
Summary: Pre-Volume 1. Beatrix is chased, and Bill chases. BxB


_You know you want to review. You know I want you to review. You know I want you to be sweet, 'cause this is my first fanfiction in this genre._

It's not the first time Bill has asked the question.

But it's the first time he asks her.

The briefcase that Beatrix has killed fifteen people for is resting on the coffee table, a pair of handcuffs still attached to the handle. The hand that bore the other cuff is at the bottom of the Yellow River, and a little blood can still be seen if you look too closely. She is rested after the fifteen-hour flight, but a livid bruise can be seen below her collarbone, and her ribs are taped. In the long run, she feels that she got off easy.

He watches her as she stuffs her hands in her pocket and flashes him His Smile, the one she doesn't show anyone else. It's the child-like, innocent smile that they both know isn't really innocent, the one that is silently asking, _Did I do it right?_

"You did good, Kiddo," he says, and now she is grinning.

Her grin freezes when he asks her the question.

"Would you care to stay for a drink?" he says, leaning back in his chair as he watches her. "I've got a bottle of tequila in the freezer, if you're interested."

It's not that Bill has never asked this question before.

It's just that he's never asked _her_.

She actually has a few reasons to say no: first things first, her rent is overdue again and her landlord has given her until seven to pay it before he has the locks changed (at her expense), and even if she leaves right now, there's no way in hell she'll beat rush-hour traffic. And aside from her son of a bitch landlord, she has to go by the pharmacy before it closes at six – again, cutting it close. She has errands to run, and 'a drink' will probably leave her homeless and sneezing in the morning. For all intents and purposes, she wants to say no.

But some part of her brain is saying _Oh my God please yes._

She doesn't think that would sound quite right, though. So she settles for a too-deliberately casual "Sure."

And when he sees her cheeks turn a little pink, he can't help but grin that snake-charming grin, the one that drew her off the streets and into his world in the first place. The one that drew all his girls in, really. Of course, she was the only one he _really _had to have. So that time was the only time that really mattered.

It becomes a sort of ritual between them after that; she does her job and then she returns to him. And no matter how beaten, bloody, or bruised she is, she always finds the energy to sit down with him and let him get her a little drunk.

It's not that he's trying to take advantage of her, oh no. It's the little things – when she's a sober girl, her guard is always up and she's too tense to really laugh, and he likes it when she laughs. He likes it because he's the only one who can get her to laugh. But when she's had a few drinks, it's effortless and entirely rewarding to elicit that sound from her. And it's his favorite sound, ever.

She finally lets it slip one night, that her bastard of a landlord is going to up her already ridiculous rent and now refuses to give her any leeway on the payment. She is absently cradling her hand, which is wrapped in gauze (at Bill's insistence) after grabbing a hot poker from a fireplace. It's a normal mistake that plenty of people make, save for the fact that most people who make this mistake don't usually drive said poker through someone's eye before worrying about the burn they'll have on their hand later.

He, of course, is sympathetic to her aforementioned trials. While she is not exactly low on cash, she does have to live on a budget, and increasing rent is not exactly something she can deal with right now.

"We'll work something out," he tells her, playing with a lock of blond hair. "Come have a drink with me tomorrow, and we'll put our heads together." He kisses her forehead when she finally leaves and tells her that she should dress up tomorrow.

But Beatrix doesn't go home, because suddenly Bill is not acting very much like a father-figure in her imagination. And she likes to drive when she has too much to think about.

Really, that's what he tries to be. With Beatrix, with Elle, with Vernita, with O-Rin, he has always been the constant in their lives. He knows that they didn't have fathers, for whatever reason, and he shows each of them that he can be what they never had. It's like waving candy under a toddler's nose. Bill himself has many father-figures, to replace the only one who really mattered.

But Beatrix isn't sure if she wants him to be her father.

She sleeps in a hotel that night, because she has an extra forty dollars in her pocket and she _can_. The next day she goes by her flat to change into something nice, and stuff some money in an envelope for her landlord.

No one answers when she knocks, rent in hand, and she is too smart to leave money lying around, so she sticks it in her purse and wonders why her fucking landlord can hover over her shoulder whenever she doesn't have the money, but can disappear when she finally has it.

_Fuckass,_ she thinks as she makes the drive. She could do it in her sleep – in fact, she might have once or twice.

Bill greets her at the door with an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "Kiddo, we're going out to celebrate. Sushi and sake at the best little hole-in-the wall you'll find on the East side, on me." He pauses once and looks her over, a gentle smile crossing his face. "You're absolutely beautiful," he adds, running a hand through her hair. "Humm... maybe _too _beautiful; every guy in town will try to steal you from me, you know."

"Worried?" she asks with a coy smile. "I _can_ handle myself, you know."

"Oh, I'm not worried about what they'd do to you," he says calmly. "I was just thinking about what I'd do to them if they even look at you for too long." He sighs dramatically. "Well I guess I'll just have to leave an extra-big tip for the mess, won't I?"

"If I'm that much trouble, how 'bout you let _me _pick up the tip?" Beatrix teases, and he realizes with great relish, when she gives him That Smile, that this blond bombshell is going to be the death of him.

By the end of the night, five guys have tried to buy her drinks, and she has kept her hand on his each time she turns them away. Maybe it's because she really thinks he'll make a scene – or, that's what she tells herself for awhile.

When they get back to his house, she tells him that she has to pay her rent and that she'll come by when her next job is over (she has a flight to London at six the next morning). He smiles at her easily as he touches her cheek. "Will you stay for a drink?" he asks.

She nods.

"That's my girl," he tells her, and his fingers run through her hair. After a moment of looking into endless blue eyes, he gives her a cocky smile. "My favorite girl," he adds offhandedly. Beatrix grins, a little hesitantly, because she never really knows if he's mocking her when he says that.

But tonight his smile it utterly charming, and the Black Mamba can hardly resist it. So naturally, she's a little disappointed when it's her forehead he kisses.

And he makes up for it more than a little when the hand in her hair tilts her head back, and his mouth meets hers.

It's not the first time Bill has done that.

But it's the first time he's done it to _her._ And if he has any say in the matter, it won't be the last time.

Beatrix is fairly certain that he isn't that way with Vernita or Elle or O-Rin – Elle, for certain, would flaunt such intimacy like a weapon. And she sure as fuck doesn't want to be _more _on Elle's bad side, so when she's got a trembling man in the cross-hairs of her gun in a private London residence, she decides that she isn't going to flaunt this... this _whatever _it is, in front of Elle.

But when she comes strolling into Bill's two days later, after resting up in her little London hotel room, it seems that Bill has different ideas. Because while she doesn't have any complaints about the warm kiss he greets her with, she realizes that Elle does.

She gets four different looks from the four different members of the Deadly Viper Association Squad: a roll of the eyes from Vernita, an arched eyebrow and a calculating glance from O-Rin, a wary eye from Bud, and a look of pure murder from Elle.

Well... fuck. She sleeps with a gun anyways; looks like it might come in handy now.

Bill watches all of this with a sharp eye: he's going to get hell for this from his brother, but that's to be expected. And after that first initial display, he has no intention of showing off his physical attachment to Beatrix. After all, she could be interpreted as a weakness, and he doesn't need to show off any of those.

But he's got his girl, and goddamn it if he's not going to keep her.


End file.
